Friday, 17 May 2013

Frank Hartung Frost Omega one-off

It happens often that luthiers, to prove their unbridled creativity compared to established guitars companies, over-design their guitars, with contoured outlines, exotic woods, wacky finishes and technical gadgets. But they are never as good as when their creativity express itself through sobriety, like in the case of this Frank Hartungone-off.

Everything stands in just one line, then one pickup, one knob, and a cool 2+4 headstock (I love 2+4 headstock, so Teisco), that's it!

One trick pony? Not at all. Would you call an acoustic guitar a one-trick pony? You can get different tones from the WAY in which you play. Personally I find that pickup selections are often an irrelevance. Some players need to stop flipping switches and playing with controls and play the damn guitar.

A one active bridge pickup with just a volume control makes me envision a guy playing 300 notes per minute into a high gain amp cranked to the max. I doubt if there will be any smooth jazz coming from that instrument. I could be wrong.

Yeah, I see what you mean, but surely the fault is with the player rather than the guitar. Give the same player a Les Paul, say, and he'll swap the pickups out for EMGs (Ugh!) and then only play it using the bridge pickup.